My Manager Lied To HR -- And Now I'm On Probation

I use the office but I don't work for the region. I just happen to live much closer to the regional office than to my team's home base in Chicago.

I use a desk at our region headquarters and I also work with two managers there, but neither of them is my supervisor. My "real" manager is in Chicago. We don't work closely together, either, but he gives me my performance review.

About a month ago I went to a team meeting in the region HQ. Somebody brought up working hours. They are not very strict about arrival and departure times in this region as long as you get your work done.

I don't even have to come into the office if I don't want to but I always do. It gives me more structure to work defined hours and I can't get much work done from home because I live across the street from an elementary school and it's loud during the day.

Right after the meeting where we talked about working hours, I got a call from HR.

The HR person was nice enough but she said, "Even though you're not part of the regional team it would be great if you could arrive before 8:30 every day, and stay until five." I said, "What? I'm always here before 8:30. What are you talking about?"

She said, "I'm sorry but one of the managers in your facility has alerted us that you arrive late quite often."

I said, "I am always here on time. Do you want me to send you a time-stamped video of me working?"

I was hot. I couldn't believe it. She wouldn't even tell me which manager in my region lied about me.

She said, "I'm sorry, but based on your attendance issues we need to put you on probation. It's just paperwork. Don't stress about it. Just be on time every day from now on."

I wanted to walk out and quit right then and there. I kept my cool.

I called my "real" manager in Chicago. He said, "I'll take care of it. It's just a political thing between the regional people out your way, and me and the rest of the HQ team."

The next day, I got an email message from the VP of HR. It was terse. It said that my "real" manager's intervention kept me from being on probation but it emphasized that punctuality is essential and warned me that if I continued to violate the attendance policy I could be subject to termination.

This is complete nonsense, Liz. What should I do?

Thanks,

Greg

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Dear Greg,

Once in a while somebody pulls back the curtain and we get to see the inner workings of a machine -- like the corporate machine you work for.

God bless your "real" boss for telling you that your fake probation was actually based on political strife that has nothing to do with you, but does that new information really make you feel better?

You're still working in a dysfunctional company.

I have never heard of an HR team that would allow someone to be put on probation just because a manager reported that that person came into work late. Where is the evidence? If your company's HR standards are so lax, you could be falsely reported for violating the attendance policy again tomorrow.

You have no choice -- you have to start job hunting, right away.

Your "real" boss in Chicago is sadly no more real than your fake boss, and the HR VP is a hot mess of a leader, too. There is no adult supervision in your organization and so your reprieve is nothing more than an opportunity to catch your breath and get your job search moving.

You need to get out of there!

It feels like a harsh blow at this moment, but when you are happily installed in a better job you'll be grateful for the nudge Mother Nature is giving you.

Bad managers lie all the time. Fear is rampant in the corporate and institutional worlds (not to mention not-for-profits, government agencies and startups). Managers lie to save face, to exert power, to get other people in trouble and for countless other reasons. If your company doesn't have your back, you can't waste any time -- you need to get moving.

Better to find out about lying managers in your midst now, when you have time to launch a stealth job and find something new, than after you've been fired for nonexistent attendance policy violations!

I was a Fortune 500 HR SVP for 10 million years, but I was an opera singer before I ever heard the term HR. The higher I got in the corporate world, the more operatic the action became. I started writing about the workplace for the Chicago Sun-Times in 1997. Now I write for...